Geoffrey Chaucer — 1441; England. As Henry VI became king on 1 September 1422, the Explicit (see above) fixes the date that the manuscript was written to the first eight months of 1441. Language of NE Lincolnshire, mixed with a Leicestershire component ( A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English [Aberdeen, 1986], vol. 1. 152)

Title

Geoffrey Chaucer — 1441; England. As Henry VI became king on 1 September 1422, the Explicit (see above) fixes the date that the manuscript was written to the first eight months of 1441. Language of NE Lincolnshire, mixed with a Leicestershire component ( A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English [Aberdeen, 1986], vol. 1. 152)

Shelfmark

MS. Selden Supra 56

Place of origin

England. As Henry VI became king on 1 September 1422, the Explicit (see above) fixes the date that the manuscript was written to the first eight months of 1441. Language of NE Lincolnshire, mixed with a Leicestershire component ( A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English [Aberdeen, 1986], vol. 1. 152)

Date

1441

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

paper, with outer bifolium of vellum for many quires. Watermarks: Couronne and six-estelles in gutters (not identified in Briquet)

Physical extent

106 fols

Decoration

Blank spaces were left for initials at the beginning of each proem but these were never added: fol. 1 (beginning); fol. 15v (Proem II); fol. 37v (Proem III); fol. 38 (Book III); fol. 60v (Proem IV); fol. 61 (Book IV); and fol. 82 (Book V)

Binding

Plain white sheepskin parchment on boards, clasp lost, contemporary English work (fifteenth century)

Alexandra Gillespie observes that very few well-known vernacular manuscripts have survived in their medieval bindings and that MS. Selden Supra 56 is one of only four of Chaucer’s works that has a pre-1500 cover. Gillespie names the other three Chaucer manuscripts as MS. Rawl. D. 3, Cambridge, St John’s, MS E. 2and London, Institution of Engineering and Technology Library, MS Thompson 1(' Bookbinding' in The Production of Books in England 1350–1500ed. by Wakelin and Gillespie [Cambridge University Press, 2011], p. 158 and p. 165)

Hannah Ryley notes that reinforcing strips were used in this manuscript to strengthen the binding by offering support to the sewing of the quires. Ryley comments that from the reader’s point of view, these reinforcing strips are 'narrow stubs poking out from between regular leaves' and that the 'stubby strips either lie flat, because they have been pasted on to adjacent leaves, or they stand up separately'. Ryley records strips at fols 6–7, 20–21, 34-35, 48–49, 62–63, 76–77, 90–91 and 103–04, with strips adhered to fols 90–91 ( Re-using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England: Repairing, Recycling, Sharing [Boydell & Brewer, 2022], p. 75). Ryley cites MS. Rawl. poet. 163as another example of reinforcing strips in a manuscript of Troilus and Criseyde

These strips are made from what Ryley terms 'recycled material' and evidence of this is that they have traces of writing on them. Although the writing on the strips is barely legible, Ryley postulates that the strips are taken from a document of some sort, most likely from the 15th century; the date assigned by Ryley would make the recycyled document roughly contemporary with the manuscript itself. Ryley hazards that the strips on fols 14-15 may contain the name ‘John’ ( Re-using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England [Boydell & Brewer, 2022], p. 76)

Acquisition

Acquired by the Bodleian in 1659

Provenance

Smudged 16th-century hand: 'Dum sum [...] vocam[...] (M. C. Seymour, The Manuscripts of Chaucer's Troilus [1992], p. 114)

'monogram in brown ink doubtfully read as 'GW' (Seymour, 'The Manuscripts of Chaucer's Troilus' , p. 114)

John Selden, 1584–1654

Title

'Liber Troyly et Criseide quod Chaucer...'

Shelfmark

MS. Selden Supra 56

Summary

'Liber Troyly et Criseide quod Chaucer . Anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo quadragesimo primo. Anno ... regis Henrici Sexti ... decimonono'. A facsimile of fol. 60v is given as plate xxiii of R. K. Root's MSS. of Chaucer's s Troilus (Chaucer Soc., 1st. ser., no. xcviii).

Date

Written in A.D. 1441

Language

English

Physical facet

On paper, binding, plain white parchment on boards, clasp lost, contemporary English work

Physical extent

106 Leaves

Custodial history

Manuscript 3459 acquired by the Bodleian Library